ISP Monitoring email??

[Shar]

You all are rational thinking, intelligent and tech savvy people who will give me an honest read on this situation... I can't see it rationally because I'm so involved at this point and I'm just furious about a number of issues.

In July 2005 my husband signed an 18 month contract with an ISP for internet service in the house I was going to live in with his parents while he was deployed. On the contract he put down MY yahoo account as the account to contact us for any issues, etc. No where on the contract did he list his employer, his employment, rank or any other indicator that he was military. My husband was very careful about not broadcasting his imminent departure to Iraq for all the obvious reasons.

Fast forward 13 months, I'm moving and my in-laws are selling the house. The internet shuts off and I no longer see charges come through on my account. I figure this is because it was a 12 month contract and it is over. (My bad for figuring anything.) I also assumed (again, my bad) that they'd leave the equipment in place on the outside of the house for the next owners since they were the only ISP game on the block at that point. (*I'll interject here that all contracts, services, accounts and everything are normally in my name or at least I know the terms because when he's gone, he's gone - to this day I don't know why he did this one.*) Three months later we get a HUGE charge from them. He emails them and asks what gives, they say that it was back-payments because our card declined. Turns out our card had expired and they terminated the service. When we asked why they never contacted us, they said they did....Here's the interesting part... They sent email to:
name.name@usarmy.mil (insert my husband's name in there)

When we asked where they got that address, they refused to answer. They screwed it up (forgot the period between us and army) - so the emails bounced back, but they clearly found it somewhere. My guess is that they were watching our email traffic. In my mind it is the only conceivable answer. My husband only uses his AKO address for official email and email from me while he was in theater. He's very restrictive with it.

Fast forward to now... I'm still in a contract dispute with them. They continue to charge us monthly internet service fees despite the fact that we haven't lived there since Sept 2006. There is a whole equipment/contract dispute going on and the guy who owns it is a CLASS A JERK. But that's not the main thing bugging me - it's the email that is bugging me. Is this nothing and I'm just caught up in it because of the contract dispute?

I just can't stand the idea that someone was watching our email traffic and for a number of reasons I want him to pay. I know it can happen, and we were always very careful for this reason, but it really bothers me. I've already taken him to the BBB and the state Attorney General. But there is clearly more I could do to crush him or at least make him very sorry.

Comments?

[echoes]

Shar...

I am not net savvy enough to know the laws, as pertaining to your current plight. However, from what you have said, you should hang this sh**bag out to dry! And just in case he doesn't fall over with your first smack...let me know, I'll come over and provide an additional.

Holly

[Kyobanim]

Shar,

Sure, he has the ability to monitor the email and everything else you did online. How is it you want him to pay? You could contact JAG and get their advise or you could go to the local Media outlet that has one of those consumer reporters. They tend to light people up.

[Shar]

Originally Posted by Kyobanim

Shar,

Sure, he has the ability to monitor the email and everything else you did online. How is it you want him to pay? You could contact JAG and get their advise or you could go to the local Media outlet that has one of those consumer reporters. They tend to light people up.

I like both the ideas. If we don't come to a resolution in the next few days on the contract side of things I think I'll throw those out there. I guess I just keep coming back to the same questions rattling around in my head...

1. WHY were they monitoring? (It would have been a whole lot easier to use the email address we provided them on the contract.)

2. What do they still have of ours? (We generally password protected anything really personal - but still... and there's everything else that I'm not 100% sure I was always perfectly vigilant on plus I was doing legal work at home for clients that wouldn't be thrilled if copies of their agreements were out there.)

3. Are they doing it to others? (Here's where I think they should publicly fry if they can't - and so far they flat refuse - to come up with any good reason they had his email address.)

[clapdoc]

My advice is to immediately get a good civil attorney who is internet savvy and let him handle this problem. People seem to always sit up and take notice when they get correspondence from a lawyer. If you are new to your area contact the local bar chapter for direction.
my .02
doc

[The Reaper]

Shar:

They may have had someone cyber savvy look him up on the net and they found that address.

If I am trying to touch base with a military buddy I have not seen in years, I just plug in their first name.last name@us.army.mil as a blind transmission. Unless it is a common name, I have normally had better than a 50-50 chance of reaching them. It is highly likely that others know this.

I doubt that they were monitoring your traffic and would not assume any skullduggery in that area until it has been proven.

At the same time, the billing behavior of your ISP strikes me as reprehensible.

I would get the contract and go see your local JAG office to see if you have any recourse through military channels.

If not, I would complain to every consumer organization and BBB I could find.

Best of luck.

TR

[Shar]

I do have an attorney on this, but only for the contract dispute part (me handling it for myself would be like an ENT doing surgery on his own heart... not a good idea). He's doing it pro bono, so I haven't thrown the email part in, but maybe I will now. It's been something I've been handling on my own through other channels.

TR - the only reason I've gone straight to the worst is that they didn't know he was in the Army. We kept it very quiet and low-key (the whole deployment thing). I think most people in the area actually thought I was without a husband because I was on the verge of a divorce. Not only that - but this is a very non-military area who wouldn't have any reason to know about an AKO address like you do.

ETA... For the record, my first dumb move was moving to a non-military area. I learned hard and fast that's not a smart thing to do during a deployment. I went there to work on-site at a client, but I paid for it in spades in other areas and being remote from the home unit. BAD IDEA.